1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat air conditioner for a vehicle which supplies conditioned air to a seat of the vehicle.
2. Related Art
JP-Y2-4-45929 discloses a forced ventilation seat for a vehicle. The seat has an air permeable pad having an air chamber in a lower part thereof. Conditioned air from a front air conditioning unit of the vehicle flows into the air chamber of the pad, and is blown out from a surface of the pad toward a passenger.
However, in the above-mentioned seat, the pad needs to have relatively high air permeability. Therefore, the pad may not have sufficient hardness nor soft touch. As a result, when the passenger is seated on the seat, the pad is heavily squashed by seating pressure of the passenger, and the passenger may have difficulty in maintaining his or her seating posture. Further, when the pad is squashed, ventilation resistance of conditioned air in the pad is increased. As a result, amount of conditioned air to be blown out from the seat may be decreased.
Referring to FIGS. 12, 13, a seat air conditioner for a vehicle in which a pad of a seat is restricted from being squashed is disclosed to cope with these problems. As shown in FIG. 12, a seat of the seat air conditioner has a pad 100 made of material having sufficient hardness such as urethane. An introduction passage 110 for introducing conditioned air to the pad 100 and plural distribution passages 120 are formed inside the pad 100. Each of the distribution passage 120 extends from the introduction passage 110 to a surface of the seat. Further, plural air outlets 130 are formed to be opened in the surface of the seat so that each of the air outlets 130 communicates with each of the distribution passages 120.
However, as shown in FIG. 13, when a passenger is seated on the seat, most of the air outlets 130 are blocked by the passenger. Therefore, conditioned air in the distribution passages 120 stagnates and is not blown out smoothly. As a result, the seat air conditioner can not provide the passenger with sufficient warmth and comfort. Further, each of the distribution passages 120 extends from a lower part to an upper part of the seat. Therefore, when conditioned air flows through the distribution passages 120, heat loss of conditioned air is relatively large. As a result, the seat air conditioner can not provide an immediate effect.